The Cellar Door is Calling
by Dreaming-Of-A-Nightmare
Summary: Naruto No Kitsune walks through the doorway of the familiar building. Clutched in his arm lies three blood red roses swathed in silvery tissue paper. Today is January 19th, a certain someone's birthday. .:. NaruGaa AU oneshot. Angst and fluff lies ahead.


_[ 'The Cellar Door is Calling' ]_

_[Naruto X Gaara]_

_[.Alternate universe oneshot.]_

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Naruto No Kitsune walks through the doorway of the familiar building. Clutched in his arm lies three blood red roses swathed in silvery tissue paper. He smiles brightly at some of the passers by, then slips into the elevator at the end of the hall with another person he knows relatively well.

"G'afternoon, Tsunade-sensei," the young blond man says politely.

The large-bosomed woman grunts and gives a nod. "Kitsune-san," she replies curtly. She stares at the closed elevator doors. "Cold out today."

"Yup!" Naruto returns as he glances impatiently up at the floor indicator. He awkwardly adjusts his hold on the flowers. "It's always extra nippy outside on this day."

"'This day'?" the woman repeats as she adjusts her white jacket. "You mean the nineteenth of January?"

Naruto's smile softens. "Yeah. I don't know why, but it's always so cold on the nineteenth. I've noticed ever since I met him."

"'Him,'" Tsunade smirks knowingly. "You mean Sabaku No Gaara."

The blond boy doesn't falter. He chuckles warmly and nods, not denying it at all. "The one and only!"

The woman bobs her head and tosses one low ponytail over her shoulder. "It's his birthday today, isn't it? You always show up at his door with flowers in hand on his birthday."

The elevator doors ping, signaling Tsunade's floor. The woman exits with a wave, and Naruto waves back. As the doors close in front of him, Naruto sighs. His smile falls. "Yes, I always do this on his birthday," he mumbles to himself, "But I'm not sure he likes it."

The elevator music plays a woeful tune about a woman leaving a man for a minute longer, and then the ping sounds again. With a metallic rustle, the doors slide open. Naruto hesitates a second, then proceeds onto Gaara's floor.

He paces down the hallway and arrives at Gaara's door. Even blindfolded, he could find this door; down the hall twenty-three and a half paces, turn to the right, and suddenly he's facing it: the fourth door on the right. Naruto has this down to a precise science, because he's been here so many times.

Waving to another person walking behind him, he knows thrice and enters without verbal consent. "Happy birthday, Gaara!" Naruto greets with a cheerful melody added to his voice. He lays the roses in Gaara's lap, plopping them down with a papery crackle. "You're twenty-two already, huh? And before me! Lucky," he says, and then laughs. He sits down in a chair adjacent to his red-haired friend. "Mind if I talk for a while? I got a lot of junk that's been bothering me lately, and I just don't know what to do about it."

Gaara sits silently, listening.

The blond shakes his head. "I dropped out of college. I know what you would say about it, so save your lectures; I already got plenty of them from Sasuke and Sakura and Sai and Neji. But hey, Shikamaru didn't even last as long as me, and he's twice as smart as I am! I thought he'd graduate early or something, but he just got too lazy and dropped out! It's weird, I know. But what's even weirder is Sakura and Sasuke dating! I mean, I knew that Sakura had a crush on the teme in grade school, but I thought it wore off. Apparently not, haha! They're even talking about marriage – well, Sakura-chan is, anyhow. I doubt Sasuke would agree to something as committing as marriage. But she can dream, right? Right," he rambles, all the while keeping his eyes from Gaara's face.

Slowly, carefully, he allows himself to look. Naruto's eyes wander, and lead him directly to the redhead's lips, nose, eyes, and hair. He stares unashamedly at his friend's jaw line, dry lips, and closed eyes.

Closed. Perfectly pale, no longer rings of purple bruises from lack of sleep masked in black eyeliner. Completely unblemished now, because Gaara is getting plenty of sleep nowadays.

Naruto's eyes begin to water. He adverts his gaze and clears his throat. His smile has long since left his face, and his shoulders are beginning to sag. The young adult sniffs and briefly wipes his hand under his nose, his eyes blinking back tears.

"How… long has it been, Gaa-ra?" Naruto murmurs brokenly, his voice dying in his throat. He swallows hard and looks back at his friend, forcing a smile. "How long since…" Tears leak out from under his lashes. They drip languidly down his cheeks, freezing his face in the chilly air of the hospital ward. He tries again, "…Since you fell into that coma?"

Tsunade walks in at this moment, followed by her mouse-like, black-haired intern, Shizune. The doctor doesn't think twice about it. She simply stands behind the blond boy and lays her hand on his shoulder in understanding.

"Are you all right, Kitsune-san?" the intern asks softly. "I know it's hard, but they say that if you talk and visit with comatose patients, they'll wake up someday."

"I pray for that miracle," Naruto murmurs in response. He reaches forward and grasps Gaara's limp hand. "I… miss him."

"He was your best friend, so it's understandable," Tsunade remarks offhandedly. She removes her hand with a squeeze to the boy's shoulder before moving over to the window. She swipes back the curtains with one hand to let in something better than artificial lighting. "But his condition _is_ improving. I was going to tell you sooner, but the board said that friends are part of the 'need to know' list for progress reports. I was hoping one of his siblings would tell you."

Naruto smiles slightly through his lingering tears. He wipes them away. "No, Temari and Kankurou don't talk to me much. But I'm glad he's getting better. For a while, I'd lost hope that he could."

"The body is a mysterious machine," Tsunade reminds strictly, her eyes flickering over to Naruto's eyes. "It can do wonders, even in the worst of times. All it needs is a little help. That's why we've been trying something experimental. We had consent from his living relatives, of course, but it's experimental nonetheless."

Naruto stares at her with intrigue and horror battle for dominance on his face. The horror wins. He stands up abruptly in panic. "Experimental? What are you doing to him? I swear, if you hurt him in the process –"

"Relax, Kitsune-san!" Shizune says, holding him back. "It's fine, honest! We would never intentionally harm a patient. But we did add something to his IV drip that has… risks. But Tsunade-san would never try it if she wasn't positive that the risks were minimal and unlikely."

"It's a basic formula, Naruto," Tsunade informs him as she sits down in a visiting chair and crosses her legs. She plants her elbows on her knees and leans forward, hiding her mouth behind her clasped hands. "It's composed of natural chemicals found in the body that can speed up the healing process." She knows not to use large, scientific words that will confuse the boy. "Nothing to be panicked about."

Naruto's tense nature seems to ease as he sits back down again and looks at Gaara's too thin, too pale form. "And… you said that its working?" he asks warily.

Tsunade shuts her eyes and sighs through her nose. "Relatively. Some days it works, but some days he regresses, and we have to up the dose or give his body a break for a while, depending on the outcome of those bad days." She pauses, then utters in nearly a whisper: "But he's been here for seven years now. Things are looking grim, no matter what we do. And he isn't the hospital's top priority."

Naruto's chest tightens. His lungs and ears burn. He refuses to meet Tsunade's eye. Still, he forces a smile and thanks the woman for the information. Then, with as much politeness as he can muter, the young man demands the two medical officers to leave him be.

"As you wish," Tsunade murmurs under her breath. "I can't argue with an upset friend of a patient. Let's go, Shizune."

"Hai, Tsunade-sensei," the raven-haired girl mutters as she bows and exits the ward.

Naruto remains frozen in his seat. He can't even summon up the energy to do anything more than strengthen his grip on Gaara's hand and speak.

"I get the message: they want to pull the plug on you if nothing significant happens soon. Fine, I see how it is. It's not cheap, housing and caring for a comatose patient. It's a bother to keep feeding nutrients and experimental fluids into your body, and a waste of space to keep you in your own room."

The blond makes a scoffing noise in the back of his throat, and his head droops down, a sardonic smile making its way across his lips.

"Yeah, sure. I understand perfectly." His mocking grin gives way to a scowl. "But you know what, Gaara? I can't sit back and let them do that to you. I won't wait around and watch you _die."_ He gnashes his teeth and blinks away another onslaught of tears. "Once was enough for me. I couldn't handle it again."

.o.o.o.

There was a time when Gaara was healthy. As fine and normal as any other boy.

Well, normal enough, anyhow.

He was dark and skeptical and sarcastic. He was a fighter through and through, using his words as his weapons. (He rarely resorted to physical combat.) Gaara had been a sculptor and mix-media painter and collage artist in high school, his favorite mediums being objects of the late 1800's and early 1900's in Europe and parts of America. Things like fallen piano keys, old door hinges, the lace and petticoats of women's dresses, and any other little object he could find, such as rusted monocles and spools of dusty thread and ancient skeleton keys those were his favorite; he had a collection of them hanging in a glass frame display case in his bedroom).

When Naruto met Gaara at a local free poetry reading at a little local café one night, the first thing they mentioned was having seeing one another in a science class, and then going on to talk about their favorite classes and hobbies. The strange redhead wasn't a very open speaker at first, but Naruto used every bit of charm he possessed to worm his way into Gaara's defenses to coax him into speaking his mind. It worked after two cups of coffee and a gush of compliments over Gaara's poems read in between the cups.

"So, how did you get into all of that old junk?" Naruto mused as he took a sip of a coconut latte. "Did your grandma force it on you or somethin', 'ttebayo?"

Gaara almost smiled. "No, my Granny Chiyo was an incorrigible woman who detested anything as old or older than she was. She liked living in the present, not the past. She wasn't very fond of her past, I suppose." He shook his head. "No, I started liking old things when I got into writing poetry not too long after I turned thirteen. In class that year, we started learning about all of the old poets of various times, and we read a few samples in class. I became curious about the time periods they originated from, and all of the objects they often spoke of that we don't have nowadays. And so, I started seeking out antique shops whenever I could."

Naruto was immediately fascinated with the red-haired boy. Not too long afterward, he began sitting with Gaara during lunch periods, and even switched over to the boy's study period. They began close friends their freshman year, and they remained friends until that fateful day…

The day that everything went awry in the most tragic of ways.

It rained that day; it poured down from the heavens with the fury of Kami Himself, lightning and thunder and sheets upon sheets of large droplets of water. Never a good sign. Still, Gaara had somewhere to be. He had somewhere to go. And he needed to get there, despite the odds. What was a little weather, when something vitally important was about to go down?

Naruto had been waiting at Gaara's destination. It was to be their first date, something Naruto practically tricked Gaara into since the redhead hadn't even been sure if he was into boys at all, but had liked Naruto plenty enough to say yes, finally. And so he raced to Naruto's house, despite the blond second-guessing and asking if they should call the whole thing off due to the storm. But Gaara was stubborn like Naruto could be stubborn, and he declared that no storm would stop them from having a good time. They owed it to themselves, after their recent problems at home.

The "problems" being issues with their fathers. They both lost their mothers to childbirth, coincidentally, and while someone less abusive than his father, Shukaku, could have raised Gaara, but the redhead chose to stick it out with the man in hopes of making himself a stronger person. Naruto, on the other hand, had no one else but his father, Kyuubi, to care for him. He never knew his mother; Kyuubi refused to say who she is, nor show any pictures. Gaara, however, had a photograph of his mother (a fraternal twin to his uncle Yashamaru) in his bedside table.

Due to all of this complication, the boys were a match in their sorrow. They mirrored one another in pain, and incidentally, ended up mirroring in understanding. This came after countless sleepovers and late-night conversations on the phone. Although Naruto did most of the talking, Gaara did have an opinion or remark after each little rant, and it lead to a very balance relationship. Speaker, listener, feedback. Full-circle interaction, as it should be.

And because of their compatibility, they decided to try a deeper relationship.

Only, Naruto never got to see what it would have been like. He never got to express his true inner feelings.

Because on that night, Gaara skidded on a too-wet road and had a head-on collision with an electric pole on the side of the road. When his blood splattered on the pavement, his body flung onto the hood of the car due to a seatbelt malfunction, the angels in the sky above could see the design amidst the falling rain: an hourglass of red beads of sand, ticking away his time to live through the chasm between the rounded triangular prisms.

Gaara had hit his head, clearly. And clearly, he wasn't going to gain consciousness very soon. And the only reason why he lived at all was thanks to Rock Lee, a classmate that had been driving to one of Naruto's neighbors houses, and obviously heading in the same direction on the same road, and passed by just in time to call an ambulance.

Naruto was called second. He arrived seconds before the emergency vehicle, and didn't hesitate to run through the soaking wet tears of the sky to his friend's car side.

Cradling the redhead in the grey lighting of the mourning late afternoon, Naruto didn't care that blood was seeping into his clothes. He didn't care that ambulance technicians were screaming and tugging on him to take Gaara away. He would let them in a second; but he had to do this first. He had to take a mental photo of this moment, in case Gaara was lost. And he had to let Gaara know that as bizarre and puzzling and moody he could be, he meant the world to Naruto.

So he kissed the bloody teen. Fifteen years old, sophomores, and both male, one dying, and yet the blond kissed Gaara. He will forever remember the feel of Gaara's already cooling lips, and the tastes of rainfall, metal, and blood on his tongue.

.o.o.o.

Knocking himself out of his flashbacking, Naruto squares his shoulders and straightens his spine. He smiles a bittersweet smile to himself. Standing from his chair, Naruto moves closer to the redhead and leans down to murmur something into the other man's ear.

"Want to know a secret?" he utters breathily to the man in the coma. "Even after seven years, I remember and care about you each and every day, even if I can't always visit because of work. But you know, I think there's a secret I want to share even more," Naruto whispers. "And that secret is this: I didn't love you then. When we were younger, I had a crush on you, but I wasn't in love, didn't truly _love-_love. Only… now, I do. I fell in love, and care to the point of true love, all because I can't help you. Couldn't _save_ you." He leans away. He sighs. "I love you out of guilt. I love you because I think only about you, and what we should have been. I turn away anyone who isn't you, because I've been obsessed with you since you stopped being conscious." Naruto laughs bitterly at himself, and runs his hand through his hair in frustration. "Am I insane, or what? I feel like I am, half of the time. I feel like this is all my fault, and that, for some reason, I should be the one who's essentially dead, not you."

Gaara can breathe by himself, and his heart still beats. Every non-conscious-thought action in his body is fully functional. But he can't eat, can't talk, can't open his eyes. It's like sleeping beauty, except with each passing year, Gaara appearance morphs closer and closer to that of a Holocaust victim's, and a true love's first kiss will not wake him.

Naruto slowly slides his hand down Gaara's face and rubs his thumb over Gaara's lips before kissing them. The redhead's skin reeks of hospital sterilization and medicine. "I never believed much in Kami, especially not after what He allowed to make you this way. I always thought it was because He disapproved of you and I, of our homosexuality, but I soon figured that such an idea was silly, since plenty of homos don't fall into comas out of punishment for dating another man. But I have lost hope for another reason: He has yet to give you back to me."

About to walk away, Naruto is stopped by a girl in nurse garb standing behind him. "E-excuse me, I couldn't help but notice, and, well… anou… I was wondering, would you believe in Kami again if He preformed a miracle for you? W-would you love Kami for the rest of your days, if He saved that young man?" the nurse stutters in an angelic voice.

She is lovely in a soft way: she has pale lavender eyes with gentle white pupils, and her hair is a bluish-purple that is long and flowing down her back. She points her fingers at themselves unsurely, and as she smiles, there is a bright, hopeful glow about her.

"Who… are you? I know nearly everyone in this hospital, but I've never seen you around before," Naruto remarks cautiously as he eyes the beautiful girl.

She giggles and blushes a nice shade of pink. "I'm sorry. I-I'm so rude! I should have introduced myself before speaking to you." She bows fully, the top of her head facing Naruto as she closes her eyes and faces the floor. "My name is Hinata Hyuuga, and I am your guardian angel, Naruto-kun."

As she slowly lifts her head and stands properly again, Hinata smiles. She is warm and inviting, innocent and pure. Naruto blinks, and without meaning to, he smiles a smile to match hers. He trusts her immediately. Then, as slow as the rising winter sun, her words reach him. The blond frowns, perplexed. "What to you mean, would I believe in Him again if He saved Gaara? Of course I would! A miracle is a miracle, and they shouldn't be taken for granted. But… what have I done to merit a miracle? I went against Him and fell in love with a man, and –"

"Naruto-kun, you misunderstand," Hinata murmurs gently. She is suddenly in front of him, her delicate finger on his mouth. "Kami does not dishonor love. He does disagree with homosexual intercourse because it goes against procreation and is essentially a waste if it consumes too much of the population. This is why He had the verse written to prevent it. He wants the human race to thrive for as long as it is supposed to, but it cannot thrive if all of the men lay with men and the women with women. That's all. But true love between the same genders is not wrong, and them proving it to one another is not wrong. As long as homosexuality remains as low of a percentage of the entire population of the planet as it is now, then all is well."

Naruto blinks, letting her words sink in as she removes her finger from his lips. She smiles at him serenely, and takes a step back.

"Okay, that's all wonderful, and I'm glad, but still, what good have I done that's enough to save a life?"

Hinata looks sad, her face falling into a half-lidded expression of heartbreak. "Naruto-kun, y-you… ah… How can I say this? You… are the only one on this planet who truly loves Gaara. His siblings care, they honestly do, but they are far from hope. They have given up. They stopped paying for his stay here two months ago, when his new treatment began. That is why they did not call you. That is why Tsunade talked to you today the way she did. Things are looking grim, and Kami needs someone kind and pure-hearted such as yourself to take this upon your shoulders and give an answer. Or, rather, ask for one." She touches the right side of his face with her left hand. She feels like the sun on a windowpane in the middle of spring. "So I ask once again: will you believe in Kami and return His love for you if He grants this wish?"

Naruto hadn't noticed when the wings appeared, but suddenly, the shimmering white feathers on either side of Hinata's body are all Naruto can see.

Breathlessly, and with tears streaming silently and without feeling down his face, Naruto cries, "Yes! I would. I _will_! Just… save him. _Please._"

Nodding, she worries her lip with her flawlessly white teeth. "I-I'm glad. But, Naruto… would you also be willing to sacrifice a piece of your soul, your very core energy, for this boy? After all, I cannot perform this miracle alone. I need help, since I am but an angel and not Kami Himself."

Naruto leaps at the chance. He takes a step forward and offers his hands. "Of course I would! Gaara deserves more of me than that, but if that's all it takes, I'm willing to give it. In my mind, it's a small price for his conscious, healthy life."

Hinata gives a reassuring smile and moves over to Gaara's cot. With two fingers on either side of the patient's head, she lightly touches his temples with her velvet fingertips. "P-place your hand between my wings," she says with a hint of embarrassment in her tone.

Naruto does so. Then:

"In the name of the Lord, I bless thee, and will thee to health again," the Hyuuga girl murmurs under her breath. In an instant, there is a pure white glow under her fingertips. As soon as the glowing appears, it vanishes again in a flash. Hinata pulls away with a jingling rustle of clothing, and then turns to face Naruto. His hand drops to his side numbly. "It is done." The angel sighs with relief. "I'm very proud of you, Naruto-kun. You truly are a kind, generous, loving sprit. Kami will honor you, and you should do the same for Him."

The blond swallows dryly and dumbly bobs his head up and down. "Y… yeah. I will. Thank you, Hyuuga-san. You… you don't know how much this means to me."

"On the contrary, I do know," she whispers, and then in the blink of an eye, she's gone. All that remains are three pearly white feathers and the nurse garb.

Naruto shakes himself mostly of his stupor. As he falls into the waiting chair in a lingering daze, he blinks to allow his eyes to focus. They rest on Gaara, and all too suddenly, the redhead is moving.

Slowly at first, the heart rate monitor begins to beat at a quicker pace; the organ awakens from its hibernation, and as it does so, the bleeps on the monitor flutter more and more rapidly like a bird's wings preparing for flight, gaining speed for take-off. Next comes the twitching of eyes behind eyelids, flickering. Crinkles in eyelid skin, a squeeze, until the lids open lazily, rising and blinking and battling eyelashes as the sleep of the living dead, the comatose, wears off and the sharpness of consciousness sinks in.

Gaara stirs, his fingers flexing and his neck rolling until he's lifting his head up from the pillow to look Naruto in the eye.

With dry, cracked lips, the redhead attempts to speak. His tongue is thick and heavy in his mouth, his teeth fuzzy from surface plaque, and his throat sandy and hoarse. Gaara somehow manages to croak three syllables: "Na… ru… to?"

Tears flood Naruto's eyes yet again, and without warning, he can't remember how Gaara freed himself from his coma. The blond remembers nothing of a bluish-purple haired girl with wings, nothing of her nearly pupiless eyes, nothing of her bestowed gift of life, given with his own help. He remembers not a lick of it. All he sees is Gaara waking from a seven-year coma, and all he cares about is rushing to the redhead's side, tears streaming, to kiss the sickly young man on the cheek.

"You… you're awake! Gaara, you've come back! Oh Kami, I'm so happy, so –"

"What… do you mean?" Gaara rasps, and Naruto pulls reluctantly away to scrounge for water. He fills a paper cup in the attached bathroom of the hospital ward and hands it to Gaara, and gleefully watches the redhead hold it himself (with shaky, numb hands, but holding it nonetheless) to drink. With a better-sounding voice, the redhead gasps, "What happened?"

Naruto's face falls slightly. "Well…" he begins, unsure of himself. How do you break to your close-friend-almost-was-boyfriend that he had been missing for seven years? "What do you remember, first? Do you have amnesia at all? – You remember me, obviously, but…"

Gaara shakes his head, his muscles feeling strained, as if they hadn't been used in a long time. "Everything is very unclear. I remember driving to your house in a storm one night, but… nothing else."

The blond takes a deep breath, and releases it slowly. "Um. Well. See, it's a little… complicated…"

"I'm in a hospital, Naruto. Clearly, things became _very _complicated. So tell me, please, what occurred." Gaara demands, his mind reeling and his body stiff and weak, but his desire to _know_ remaining quite strong.

"You… got into a car crash," Naruto says softly, and as gently as possible. He sits down again to ease some of the tension. Clasping his hands together, he sighs and continues, "There was blood everywhere. Lee found you, and called an ambulance, and then me. I got there before the ambulance did, and…"

"And I went to the hospital. You probably rode with me in the vehicle, and that's why we're here now. Correct?" Gaara murmurs, fear rising in his chest. There is something very wrong here, his gut tells him. But he is afraid to face it.

Naruto looks away. "Not… exactly," Naruto says.

"I thought not," Gaara remarks icily. "You look older than I remember, Naruto. I'm not stupid. Something went wrong, didn't it?"

Naruto bites his bottom lips, and he swallows the tart saliva of pre-tears. He doesn't want to cry again. Instead, he forces himself to continue talking. "Y-yes. You… Gaara, you fell into a coma."

Gaara is as stony-faced as ever. But the blond can see the panic and shock burn icy holes in his friend's eyes.

"A coma," Gaara repeats quietly. He adverts his eyes to look down at his sheet-covered legs. The natural question arises, "For how long?"

"You have to understand, Gaara, your head was in very bad shape –" Naruto blurts in a rush.

"_How long,_ Naruto?" Gaara hisses, pain saturating his tone.

The blond breaks. He looks Gaara in the eye and shoots back an honest answer: "Seven years." He doesn't smile as he says, "Happy birthday, Gaara. It's January nineteenth, year twenty-ten, and you're twenty-two years old."

Nothing compares to the expression of sheer terror and disclosure that shatters Gaara's resolve. His usual mask falls away, his demeanor shifts, and suddenly all of the grogginess of the moments following a too-long bout of sleep dissolves. Gaara is left naked and bare, his emotions displayed on his face as clear as day.

"Twenty… two?" Gaara whispers. "Seven years?"

Naruto can't look his friend in the eye. "Yes."

Gaara slowly accepts this and starts nodding. Holding his head in one hand, he swallows hard and squeezes his eyes shut. "Yes… yes. Yes, I remember now. I remember thinking as my car was skidding that I was going to die. And then… a white place. A white place with wind and blowing autumn leaves, but no ground nor sky nor trees in sight. I remember thinking to myself, 'Is this purgatory?' But then I remember hearing echoes as I wandered the blaringly white void. Echoes of…" he drifts off for a moment. His eyes fly open and he stares at Naruto's awestruck face. "Your voice. You, speaking to my unconscious body. You…" Gaara pauses, gaping. "You said you loved me."

Seemingly out of nowhere, a small smile starts taking over Naruto's mouth. He laughs breathlessly, and leans over in his chair to take a hold of Gaara's stilled hand. "Silly artist," he chuckles bitter-sweetly, "Of course I love you. I'm just glad you heard me. I'm just glad that miracles still happen. And I feel even more glad, for some reason, that my faith in Kami has been restored." His cerulean blue orbs seem to smolder and shine as he peers into Gaara's slowly coloring face, the years of practical starvation and near rigor mortis melting away as if by magic. "Promise me this is a new beginning, Gaara. Tell me that you're all better, and that we can be together. Please."

Ever so slowly, a miniature smile lifts the corners of Gaara's chapped lips. "This is a new beginning, Naruto," he recites, "Because I'm healed. And now, we can be together like we planned all those years ago."

All that sounds next is the flood of feet stomping on tiled flooring as Doctor Tsunade and some of her interns and nurses come bursting into the ward, having been summoned by the readings picked up and sent to them via the heart rate monitor. Naruto is too busy clutching Gaara to care about the shouts and exclamations about this anomaly, and simply enjoys the feeling of a truly living Gaara in his arms again.

_[ .Finite. ]_

* * *

**Inspirations:**

'**It's A Tradition,' a Static Shock fanfic by Valkyrie-Alex of Fanfiction**

'**Coma White' by Marylin Manson**

'**Comatose' by Skillet**

'**Cellar Door' by Escape the Fate**

'**Grilled Cheesus' episode of Glee**

'**Life Is Beautiful' AMV by ChildeAtHeart17 of YouTube**


End file.
